Paella

[aadroma]

Carl and I were watching Top Chef, and British King of Food Douchery Toby Young was a guest judge. Towards the end the least successful dishes were being reviewed, and Padma says, "... and what about the pah ey yah?"

Toby, full of himself, countered, "... why does everyone insist on calling it that?? It's a pa ehl luh -- just as you don't say

Comments

[muckefuck]

Actually, Raj, British English speakers do say the "t" in "fillet". "Mignon" is, however, "MEEN-yahn" rather than "MIG-non".

[aadroma]

I give my Aussie friend hell because he says "fil-let". I didn't even know what he was talking about for a couple of minutes, and I finally said, "... /fil:ej/??"

That DOES seem bass-ackwards to me -- why keep half of the name in a French approximant pronunciation?

[muckefuck]

Basically, because fillet isn't felt to be a French word any more. It's actually been in the language for over six hundred years.

It's similar to the way everyone I know pronounces steak frites with the English pronunciation of "steak" instead of the French even though this is a French dish.

[aadroma]

"Fil-let minyan" is a new one to me -- even the Aussies use the French-ish variant. I suppose the Brits are consistent 9_9

I've never had nor even heard of steak frites, BTW.

[muckefuck]

What about "beef bourguignon"? That's probably a better analogy because "beef" is from French "bœuf".

[aadroma]

A better analogy -- I can see where you're going with that. I always assumed these "half and half" creations were because the French part referred to a certain styling and were just acting as adjectives.

I admit, though, I'm used to a fairly consistent pronunciation of "filet mignon" even in non-English languages, hence my surprise that the odd language out is one I speak. :: laugh ::

[ericdabear]

I think a good number of the "half and half" creations are because of the preparation method (most deal with food, no?). Labeling something as "Florentine" means it has spinach. Therefore, saying Frijoles Florentine might still cause two different dialects in the same mouth and, to me, would be most correct to say.

[gorkabear]

In Spain, people just "read" foreign names as if they were written in Castillian, even Catalan speakers. Latinamericans are more respectful (or invaded culturally) than us here

So, filet mignon is "fileT miJnón" and during the dictatorship, even American actors from movies had their names literally pronounced in Castillian: Hon Baine (John Wayne), for instance.

Thanks to certain improvements in education, which are completely reveresed now, my generation tries to sound closer to the original but withouth forcing the pronounciation. A too close "foreign" pronunciation is considered snob.

I work with computers, so a "delete" is "DE-LE-TEh", although I always say "Delit", and an "update" is "OOP-DAh-TEH", and I say "Opdeit".

[dibsy]

Like St Louis?

[muckefuck]

I don't follow you. I'm from St Louis. We say "Saint Lewis". "Saint Louie" has about the same standing as "Frisco" in San Francisco. It's only generally acceptable in the lyrics to the song.